Russia’s Last Stand at Indian Wells

More stark humiliation and failure for Russia’s “dominant” female tennis players to report.

Russia had five of the 16 seeds at last week’s Tier I WTA Tour tennis event in Indian Wells, California.

Two of its top three seeds, including the tournament’s #1 seed, were blown off the court by much lower-ranked players before the even getting to the tournament’s fourth round. In a disgraceful humilation top-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova lost her opening round match to an unseeded Spaniard, while #10 seed Maria Sharapova (Russia’s third-highest seed) was whipped by the #18 seed, from China in her third-round match.

That wasn’t the end of the carnage. Two of the other five seeds, Nadia Petrova (#16) and Vera Zvonareva (#12) were defeated in the fourth round, though at least they could say they lost to higher seeds.

This left only one Russian seed, #4 Elena Dementieva, with a chance to get as far as the semi-finals. Needless to say, she didn’t. She lost her quarter-finals match in easy straight sets to a lower seed.

So in the end, despite having five seeds, not a single so-called “dominant” Russian woman got as far as the semi-finals, much less had a chance to win the prestigious tournament. And all this occurred despite the fact that neither dominant American, Venus or Serena Williams, had to be faced by any of the Russians because neither entered the draw. Had either much less both done so, Russia’s fortunes could have been even more disastrous.

15 responses to “Russia’s Last Stand at Indian Wells”

And what? Does this again proves Russian barbarism and insanity? Use your scarce brain at least to think carefully which items to bring to discussion. Otherwise it looks like you gather all negative materials about Russia to support your primitive binary way of thinking (say, “Russian volleyball team lost!!! Oh, how barbaric Russians are!”) , no matter how relevant these items are.

We didn’t say it shows Russians are barbaric, you are simply lying like an ape.

We said it shows Russians are losers, and the reputation of their female tennis players is an illusion — just like the reputation of Vladimir Putin.

If you can’t read our posts in good faith and comment like a gentlemen, you’ll lose your privilege to do so. Watch your step, ape. This is your final warning. Do you realize that your childish, deranged, rude and ignorant babbling makes Russia look like a nation of lunatics? Was that really your intention?

I must admit to having some trouble with sports posts on La Russophobe. From what I can gather it appears as if Russia’s sports performance is at the very least better than the average country. The per capita showing at the many Olympics it has participated in seem to show this. However I also have noted that when it comes to Russia appearances can be deceptive to say the least. Can anyone on this blog give some kind of per capita Olympic medal defense of Russia in some way? Is there some way to extract from the USSR medal counts over the years some kind of relative performance table? I would love to see it!

You are right: Russia’s sports performance is very good among large countries.

Russia’s per capita performance at the recent Winter Olympics was very mediocre. On the other hand, at the last Summer Olympics in Beijing, Russia did well per capita, as always easily defeating the United States and China, per capita:

But keep in mind that China’s and USA’s populations are much larger than Russia’s. That means that per 100 million of population, Russia won 16 golds, 15 silvers, and 20 bronzes; while USA won 12 golds, 12 silvers and 12 bronzes. China is not nearly as good.

If we combine the medals won in both the last Winter and the last Summer Olympics, we shall see that per 100 million of population, Russia won 18 golds, 18 silvers, and 25 bronzes; while USA won 15 golds, 17 silvers and 16 bronzes, per 100 million.

Thus, I suspect that Russia has the best per capita medal count among all large countries in the World. Certainly better than USA.

Why don’t you take the number of medals won by the Swiss or Austrians or Norwegians in Vancouver, and divide that by population. If you calculate on a per capita basis, the distinctions between the large and small countries are eliminated, are they not?

Cory, you are rationalizing. If Russians would admit they are just an average country, that would be great! But they don’t. They strut and preen and talk about being “dominant” in women’s tennis, and the facts are quite different indeed.

This post is about tennis, not the Olympics. We would appreciate it if you would not change the subject, it’s rather rude. We juts had a special issue devoted to the Olympics, plenty of space to comment there.

If you think Russia did well at Vancouver, we respectfully disagree, and we’ve made our case abundantly clear.

Wait a minute Corey, Russia aggressively and in a quite nasty manner demands respect and admiration. She does not agree she is an “average country.” So, why don’t you judge her by the standard she set for herself?

Or is it just a form of jingoism that has replaced Communism as a national ideology?

Under the ‘Why be a Russophobe” heading at the top of this blog there are ten reasons to be one and number six is that Russia and sports are like oil and water. While some ill informed Russian bragadocios may not know any better, the evidence does not appear to validate this particular claim and I do mean particular claim made at the top of this blog. Especially in the light of its superior Olympic performance compared to the USA as demonstrated above. I will try to follow the threads more narrowly in the future as God forbid anyone was rude on the La Russophobe blog.

PARIS — The US women’s 4x400m relay team will be stripped of their gold medal from the 2004 Athens Olympics after the suspension of Crystal Cox for doping, world athletics governing body IAAF confirmed.

“This athlete recently accepted a 4-year period of ineligibility and disqualification of her results from 2001 after having admitted her involvement in the BALCO conspiracy,” the IAAF said in a statement.

“She took part in the 4x400m US Relay team who won the gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. According to the IAAF Competition Rules in effect in 2004, the US relay team results will be disqualified accordingly.”

Second-placed Russia are set to receive gold ahead of Jamaica and Britain.

Some of the biggest stars in US sport have been swept up in the BALCO steroids probe including sprinter Marion Jones, who was stripped of her Olympic titles after admitting to steroid use.

Meanwhile, US sprinter Justin Gatlin, the Olympic 100m champion in 2004, has had his request for an early return rejected by the Doping Review Board. His four-year ban runs until July 24 next.

Thanks for proving the importance of this post with your idiotic “comment.”

The point: While Russians have highly ranked players, THEY ALWAYS LOSE IN HUMILIATING FASHION in the big tournaments. They get their rankings in a fraudulent manner by grinding out victories against inferior opponents in second-rate tournaments, then get exposed in the spotlight. THAT IS THE REASON FOR THIS POST YOU GORILLA.

A bit angry aren’t we. Calm down LR, you’re going to give yourself a heart attack. Obviously as someone who’s never played sports, you don’t get a very simple concept which is the following. Ready? Ok, here I go. A win is a win and a loss is a loss. Get it? “Fradulent manner” is not exactly fraudulent, even if what you say is true, it’s a completely legal strategy. Also, can you refrain from personal insults or is that a non starter with you fat mrs piggy?

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